In a city where more than 42 percent of the people claim to speak at home a language other than English, the presence of foreigners speaking in their native tongues is not an unusual sight.

Something along those lines is what happened to the Puerto Rican José Colón, who has worked for 20 years at the Seward Park Housing Corporation, where he has handled things mostly in Spanish, although he is capable of handling things in English as well.

Colón is charging Rudd Realty Management, which manages four of the corporation’s buildings in lower Manhattan, with discrimination.

He said he received a letter from management warning him that he must speak in English in all public spaces of the building where he works. He added, however, that the letter makes no mention of the verbal threats made by Operations Director Jorge Faerman.

“He told me, ‘English only,’ and that if I continued to talk in Spanish he’d fire me,” stated Colón.

Eric Nagy, a former worker at the corporation backed Colon’s allegations. “I also got a warning but it was verbal,” said Italian-Puerto Rican Nagy, whose speech darts easily between English and Spanglish.

Nagy, who was fired for reasons other [than language], added that about a dozen of the 48 workers who work at Seward Park, support Colón. Robert Echevarría, a union shop steward confirmed, “This is discrimination. There are Russian [workers] who use their language and there have been no complaints.”

The workers commented that Faerman speaks perfect Spanish because he grew up in Argentina. “He wants us to call him George even though his name is Jorge. It’s as if I were to change my name to Joseph, but that’s not my name,” said Colon.

Mike Fishman, president of Local 32BJ, said that, “Rudd Realty’s attempt to make workers speak English only is unfair, impractical and maybe discriminatory. Because of that, the union had filed a complaint and called for a meeting.”

Rudd Realty sent a letter signed by Stanley Friedland, president of the Seward Park Corporation, saying: “We hope we can solve any misunderstanding. Our corporation does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnic origin or anything else. Any policy that we adopt is for the sake of public safety and to improve negotiations.”